Football 2024/25

[FeverDream]

37 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think Everton can easily get pulled back into it.

 

Ipswich have played pretty well all season and are now finding a way to get some wins. I think they're in a decent spot to keep slowly climbing. I'm not sying they'll get out of it, but I kinda fancy them to stay up now.

 

Palace have such a good spine to their team, that I feel they're surely 1 signing away from becoming fine, but they're clearly not atm.

My thing with Everton is they’ve floated with the possibility of relegation for the last few seasons and somehow always escape it. I think they’ll get away with it again.

 

I'd love Ipswich to be the side out of the 3 promoted that stay up tbf. 
 

Palace have played well against Brighton this first half so I think you’re probably right in that they might just have enough.

[thetime]

7 minutes ago, FeverDream said:

My thing with Everton is they’ve floated with the possibility of relegation for the last few seasons and somehow always escape it. I think they’ll get away with it again.

 

I'd love Ipswich to be the side out of the 3 promoted that stay up tbf. 
 

Palace have played well against Brighton this first half so I think you’re probably right in that they might just have enough.

 

Everton's form is pretty decent in the last 3 months in the league. 

 

3 wins

6 draws

2 defeats.

 

 

 

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think Everton can easily get pulled back into it.

 

Ipswich have played pretty well all season and are now finding a way to get some wins. I think they're in a decent spot to keep slowly climbing. I'm not sying they'll get out of it, but I kinda fancy them to stay up now.

 

Palace have such a good spine to their team, that I feel they're surely 1 signing away from becoming fine, but they're clearly not atm.

We've just seen Palace record a pretty decent win to see off Brighton as part of an unbeaten run they're knitting together. So something does seem to be clicking there.

 

I think Wolves and Southampton are the two most at risk of the drop, then one of Leicester, Ipswich or Everton as the other vulnerable one. PSR may well be a factor given the talk of a points deduction for Leicester or Everton that's been somewhere in the background for a few months, although there's yet to be any charges filed so we may have to wait on that one.

[Punksnotdead]

Get in Amad! Can't believe how sh*t city have become. We were shite, city were worse!

[Neil]

15 minutes ago, Punksnotdead said:

Get in Amad! Can't believe how sh*t city have become. We were shite, city were worse!

City haven't become sh*t it's just they were never that good Despite peps bluster.

[Punksnotdead]

36 minutes ago, Neil said:

City haven't become sh*t it's just they were never that good Despite peps bluster.

They have got the least points in the PL in the last 2 months - including Southampton! How do you go from winning 4 titles on the trot & being top of the league in October to being bottom of the form league?

 

Oh and by the way, much as it pains me to say, city have been brilliant for the last 5 years. 

[pink_triangle]

On 12/13/2024 at 11:10 AM, Comfy Bean said:

nah mate. My football watching is a league down unfortunately. 

Top scorer at the moment so doing well for himself. Not sure if we have a recall clause in January.

[pink_triangle]

5 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think Everton can easily get pulled back into it.

 

It feels like my entire life Everton have flirted with relegation and somehow found a way to avoid it.

 

Southampton to me are a perfect example of what I find annoying with some of the current football managers. Heading for one of the lowest points totals in EPL history but with a manager who cares more about their cv and impressing stat nerds than the league table.

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, Neil said:

City haven't become sh*t it's just they were never that good Despite peps bluster.

Eh? You don't win 4 Premier League titles in a row and a Champions League by being sh*t.

 

55 minutes ago, Punksnotdead said:

They have got the least points in the PL in the last 2 months - including Southampton! How do you go from winning 4 titles on the trot & being top of the league in October to being bottom of the form league?

 

Oh and by the way, much as it pains me to say, city have been brilliant for the last 5 years. 

It is confounding as to where exactly this crash has come from. Maybe Rodri and others being injured hit them harder than expected, maybe the midfield has been too weighted towards creative players rather than play-breakers, maybe they're too reliant on Haaland, maybe they haven't adequately replaced wingers sold in recent seasons, maybe Kyle Walker has become too unreliable. I dunno.

 

I can imagine a lot of people are finding it entertaining, mind.

[charlierc]

37 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Southampton to me are a perfect example of what I find annoying with some of the current football managers. Heading for one of the lowest points totals in EPL history but with a manager who cares more about their cv and impressing stat nerds than the league table.

This has been a constant in Russell Martin's career tbf. Back at MK Dons years ago, he was asked about a Plan B following a sticky patch and said "I don’t understand what a Plan B is. It’s not happening. We aren’t putting a big man on and lumping it."
 

I do wonder if a generation of coaches has come up seeing the success in playing this way and the fact that bigger name clubs are gravitating towards this style and think this is the way to go, even though many of the managers of these big clubs have demonstrated a certain flexibility to be able to workshop solutions rather than rigidly sticking to a plan. I guess it's part of a bigger conversation about why it is English/British coaches aren't getting the gigs with big clubs and haven't in years. Indeed pretty sure it's now just Howe & Dyche as English gaffers in the top 20, with only McKenna and (for now) Martin added when stretching that to British.

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

It feels like my entire life Everton have flirted with relegation and somehow found a way to avoid it.

 

Southampton to me are a perfect example of what I find annoying with some of the current football managers. Heading for one of the lowest points totals in EPL history but with a manager who cares more about their cv and impressing stat nerds than the league table.

I spent 5 years running placing £5 bets on Villa to go down then stopped (I was tight for money so stopped doing my yearly £50 of bets), and inevitably that was the season they went down!

 

I do think they'll go in the next 2-3 years unless something changes, the club is in a mess behind the scenes and has endless manager turnover. Bad timing of a points deduction and they're screwed. I think they mostly avoid it by promoted teams being garbage lately.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Eh? You don't win 4 Premier League titles in a row and a Champions League by being sh*t.

 

It is confounding as to where exactly this crash has come from. Maybe Rodri and others being injured hit them harder than expected, maybe the midfield has been too weighted towards creative players rather than play-breakers, maybe they're too reliant on Haaland, maybe they haven't adequately replaced wingers sold in recent seasons, maybe Kyle Walker has become too unreliable. I dunno.

I think it's not just Rodri being injured, but all their deep-lying options. Not just Kovacic as the other obvious DM choice, but De Bruyne who can sit deeper and distribute from further back. Add in the shock of moment and Walker's pace going in the space of 2 months and you can kinda understand it.

 

Biggest test of Pep's career though.

[Neil]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Eh? You don't win 4 Premier League titles in a row and a Champions League by being sh*t.

 

It is confounding as to where exactly this crash has come from. Maybe Rodri and others being injured hit them harder than expected, maybe the midfield has been too weighted towards creative players rather than play-breakers, maybe they're too reliant on Haaland, maybe they haven't adequately replaced wingers sold in recent seasons, maybe Kyle Walker has become too unreliable. I dunno.

 

I can imagine a lot of people are finding it entertaining, mind.

Not the best team ever,

pep hasn't improved any players.mostly there was lots of bullshit spoken.

[Neil]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

This has been a constant in Russell Martin's career tbf. Back at MK Dons years ago, he was asked about a Plan B following a sticky patch and said "I don’t understand what a Plan B is. It’s not happening. We aren’t putting a big man on and lumping it."
 

I do wonder if a generation of coaches has come up seeing the success in playing this way and the fact that bigger name clubs are gravitating towards this style and think this is the way to go, even though many of the managers of these big clubs have demonstrated a certain flexibility to be able to workshop solutions rather than rigidly sticking to a plan. I guess it's part of a bigger conversation about why it is English/British coaches aren't getting the gigs with big clubs and haven't in years. Indeed pretty sure it's now just Howe & Dyche as English gaffers in the top 20, with only McKenna and (for now) Martin added when stretching that to British.

Chris Woods having a decent season as the big front man.

[pink_triangle]

I don’t think this Liverpool team is particularly great, but it feels like (similar to when Leicester won) they will take advantage of a season where others don’t play to their potential. For balance in the past Liverpool have played really well over a season and come second, so maybe it’s luck evening itself out.

[charlierc]

10 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think it's not just Rodri being injured, but all their deep-lying options. Not just Kovacic as the other obvious DM choice, but De Bruyne who can sit deeper and distribute from further back. Add in the shock of moment and Walker's pace going in the space of 2 months and you can kinda understand it.

 

Biggest test of Pep's career though.

Certainly, if you're on a run of one win in 11 games, even with such a stellar previous career, you're going to have questions as to where it's all gone off the rails. And yeah, there is a degree of self-reinforcing shock. Yesterday, it did almost seem like a team trying to shithouse its way to a 1-0 and duly stumbling in the closing stages when the finish line was in sight. Almost like the first Manchester United goal lead to them thinking they'd concede again and duly doing so, not helped by Gvardiol's latest bollock dropped as it looks like he let that Diallo winner through his legs.

[charlierc]

9 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I don’t think this Liverpool team is particularly great, but it feels like (similar to when Leicester won) they will take advantage of a season where others don’t play to their potential. For balance in the past Liverpool have played really well over a season and come second, so maybe it’s luck evening itself out.

Potentially? I guess we'll see how the December/January period where its football overload pans out. But Chelsea still have an erratic keeper and defence so I feel like that might hold them back, similar to the time Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool nearly won the league, while Arsenal's sudden inability to score from open play was really apparent in that stalemate with Everton the other day.

[thetime]

23 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Potentially? I guess we'll see how the December/January period where its football overload pans out. But Chelsea still have an erratic keeper and defence so I feel like that might hold them back, similar to the time Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool nearly won the league, while Arsenal's sudden inability to score from open play was really apparent in that stalemate with Everton the other day.

 

It's really interesting with the league at the minute. Let's be honest it's klopp's side, proof in the pudding will be how Slot can develop the side next season. 

 

Liverpool have the same issue as City for me, the big players in the 30-33 category. 

 

Chelsea have the youngest squad in the league, so are set up for success. Especially if Liverpool and City don't get it right, in the next summer or 2. I'm sure City will come up with a dodgy sponsorship deal or 2 to generate funds. 

 

Not impressed with Arsenal at all, when a poor utd side can make you look average. 

Edited December 16, 2024 by thetime

[charlierc]

8 hours ago, thetime said:

 

It's really interesting with the league at the minute. Let's be honest it's klopp's side, proof in the pudding will be how Slot can develop the side next season. 

 

Liverpool have the same issue as City for me, the big players in the 30-33 category. 

 

Chelsea have the youngest squad in the league, so are set up for success. Especially if Liverpool and City don't get it right, in the next summer or 2. I'm sure City will come up with a dodgy sponsorship deal or 2 to generate funds. 

 

Not impressed with Arsenal at all, when a poor utd side can make you look average. 

I think I'd be more confident about Chelsea if they had a more reliable keeper than Sanchez, who I've found unconvincing since his Brighton days. Going forward, they've fused together really nicely and have a real array of depth to play with. It helps ofc that they have form in comparison to Man City's burnout or Arsenal's odd creativity issues, where they seem to have real issues with an over reliance of Odegaard, Saka and corners, and when none of those worked against Everton, they ran out of ideas.

 

Liverpool may have a lot of players now over 30 but until now they've still looked like they have a bit of verve about them. They could still have beaten Fulham at the weekend despite playing most of the game with a player down. The gap is decreasing but win the game in hand and they can still pull the gap back out again. But it was likely somebody might begin to reel them in if they didn't go on a crazy winning run like Klopp's 2019/20 side did.

[thetime]

6 minutes ago, charlierc said:

 

 

Liverpool may have a lot of players now over 30 but until now they've still looked like they have a bit of verve about them. They could still have beaten Fulham at the weekend despite playing most of the game with a player down. The gap is decreasing but win the game in hand and they can still pull the gap back out again. But it was likely somebody might begin to reel them in if they didn't go on a crazy winning run like Klopp's 2019/20 side did.

 

The time is right for Liverpool to win the title, rebuild after this season. 

[thetime]

Rashford gone 😄

[Neil]

On 12/16/2024 at 5:26 PM, thetime said:

 

The time is right for Liverpool to win the title, rebuild after this season. 

selling solanke is starting to look like a bad mistake. Jota is decent but hes not salah.they need to find another breakthru striker (that they can develop) like solanke was (in theory) when signed.

[Neil]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

Rashford gone 😄

cant keeep treating him like sh*t

On 12/16/2024 at 5:26 PM, thetime said:

 

The time is right for Liverpool to win the title, rebuild after this season. 

selling solanke is starting to look like a bad mistake. Jota is decent but hes not salah.they need to find another breakthru striker (that they can develop) like solanke was (in theory) when signed.

[Gnomicide]

10 hours ago, Neil said:

selling solanke is starting to look like a bad mistake. Jota is decent but hes not salah.they need to find another breakthru striker (that they can develop) like solanke was (in theory) when signed.

 

Solanke was cutting it when he was at the club, looked more like he'd turn into another Origi more than a reliable striker. 

 

Jota is probably the best striker at the club, given that Salah is a winger. Best option for a Salah replacement at the moment is Ben Doak, who seems to be doing really well on his loan spell and with Scotland.

 

Besides, I reckon Salah will sign for a couple more years.

[thetime]

1 minute ago, Gnomicide said:

 

Besides, I reckon Salah will sign for a couple more years.

Aguero has already released that  information, done deal.